“Zahran is the mastermind of these attacks,” Azath Salley, governor of the country’s Western Province, told the network. “He is the one.

“He is the guy who is giving them the ideology, and when he talks to people, they get convinced.”

Hashim — on authorities’ radar for at least three years thanks to his sick online calls to violence against non-Muslims, some of which used a photo of the burning Twin Towers as a backdrop — is believed, though not confirmed, to be dead after personally taking part in the attacks, said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Meanwhile, it was reported that a terrorist-behind-the-terrorist gave a warning that the attack was coming while being interrogated, only for the tip to fall largely on deaf ears.

A suspected ISIS member arrested in India in the weeks before the attack cracked under grilling by Indian officials, telling them that he radicalized and trained Hashim, who was plotting an attack on Sri Lanka, CNN reported, citing an unnamed Indian official.

Indian officials shared the intel — down to Hashim’s name — with their counterparts in Sri Lanka as early as April 4, but the information was slow to trickle through the Sri Lankan government, and it’s unclear what precautions, if any, were taken.